When a judge hearing a protection order petition thinks the defendant is engaged in "harassment," which can include two or more statements the judge thinks is libelous, the judge can effectively criminalize future libels of the plaintiff by the defendant.
But here the Iowa Supreme Court reduced the verdict to $3M, with an interesting analysis of the law of libel.
at least in text messages to the grandchildren.
The award was entered against entertainment executive Damon Anthony Dash, former business partner of Jay-Z; $650K in libel damages to another plaintiff, plus likely $25K of the $125K, remain.
The case may get refiled, but it’s not looking promising.
Press accounts had said he “had been banned from the mall because he repeatedly badgered teen-age girls” and that he had told a 14-year-old girl at the mall “she looked pretty.” "But viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Moore, the court finds that telling viewers that Moore was banned from the mall for soliciting sex from a 14-year-old Santa’s Helper is more stinging than telling viewers that Moore complimented a 14-year-old girl on her appearance or telling them more generally that Moore was banned from the mall for soliciting young girls.”
It's chiefly because Virginia doesn't recognize nonmutual collateral estoppel, of course!
The Institute for Justice, which represented the critic, so reports.
The underlying lawsuit was brought by Mickell Lowery, a Commissioner for Shelby County (which contains Memphis)—and son of longtime Memphis City Councilman Myron Lowery, who had also briefly served as Mayor—over allegedly libelous statements during his election campaign.
The court so holds as a matter of the law of remedies, though I think such an order would generally be an unconstitutional prior restraint as well.
Criticism of Grayson (who's now running in the 2022 Florida Senate primary) in his losing 2018 House campaign was based on "articles by independent, reputable sources," and there wasn't clear and convincing evidence that the defendants knew their statements were false or likely false (the so-called "actual malice" standard).
said Judge Vince Chhabria (N.D. Cal.) about this amicus brief from Paul Alan Levy (Public Citizen) and Phillip R. Malone of the Juelsgaard I/P and Innovation Clinic (at Stanford).
So the Michigan Court of Appeals held Thursday, in a case brought by the former head women's gymnastics coach at Central Michigan University.
The U.S. Polo Association investigation exonerated the plaintiff, but the plaintiff still sued the USPA for libel.
Not even under an anti-SLAPP statute—rather, under a statute allowing sanctions for "frivolous conduct in filing civil claims."
Former Congressman Alan Grayson, now running for the Senate in Florida, is producing some interesting caselaw.
cutting back on what seemed like a categorical prohibition on anti-libel injunctions from a 1978 Pennsylvania Supreme Court case.
Very likely no, if the clerk is domiciled in D.C. or Maryland (and pretty likely no if in Virginia), if the stated factual background is accurate.
The Pirates of the Caribbean actor is taking advantage of the state's lax laws that make it easier to file frivolous lawsuits intended to quell speech.
Yevhen V says likely yes.
